New Schedule

Hey. It's been a little while since I've posted but I've been busy teaching, exploring and fighting the man.

And anyone who has fought the man knows that the man is tenacious, a fighter who won't back down. Strong, proud and not unlike that big fish in The Old Man and the Sea (which I read on the Metro this morning).

The man, in this case, is my director who imposed upon all of the foreign teachers at my school an unfair and rather shitty new schedule. We all knew that Winter intensive was over last week and we were promised a lighter schedule in the new semester. When, Monday morning, we were given our schedules we were surprised to discover that all of us are teaching more classes than ever. I'm teaching 9 classes a day compared to the 7 I was teaching before. I'm ok with teaching 9 classes a day as long as they are real classes. My schedule had 12 "special classes" a week which I later found out were private lessons with the director's son! This, my friends, is some bullshit. Also, I volunteered to work the 1-9 shift so I wouldn't have to teach kindergarten and would have the advanced students. I really like my classes but I work 1-9 with NO BREAKS! I was given no time during the evening to, you know, eat dinner, relax, not have erasers thrown at my head. This I complained about pretty quickly and I get a new schedule today that I've been promised will have at least one period for dinner.

I was told this is all temporary and will only last till the end of this month, when we'll be given a easier schedule. I'm not sure how this will be accomplished since two Korean teachers quit this month and one is leaving March 1st. According to the two teachers who have been here for 9 months, this is the fourth time they haven't received what was promised. There could be quite a few people leaving if promises aren't kept next month. I'll keep you posted.